


The Red String of Fate

by FidgetFidgets



Category: Bishoujo Senshi Sailor Moon | Pretty Guardian Sailor Moon (Anime & Manga), 名探偵コナン | Detective Conan | Case Closed
Genre: Angst, Declarations Of Love, Doomed Relationship, F/M, Fairy Tale Elements, First Love, Friendship, Gen, Language of Flowers, Miscommunication, Mystery, Red String of Fate, Romance, Tragic Romance
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-05-09
Updated: 2017-05-21
Packaged: 2018-10-29 21:55:30
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 8
Words: 9,828
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10862862
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/FidgetFidgets/pseuds/FidgetFidgets
Summary: Like beads of various materials, colours, and sizes, our impressions and beliefs are strung together by the invisible thread of destiny…(A Shinichi/Ran  & Shinichi/Ai story and a possible prequel to "Encounter in Venice" & "Ghost at Twilight" in my DC/BSSM crossover universe)





	1. Ogre

**Author's Note:**

  * For [aritzen](https://archiveofourown.org/users/aritzen/gifts).
  * Inspired by [Ghost at Twilight](https://archiveofourown.org/works/627926) by [FidgetFidgets](https://archiveofourown.org/users/FidgetFidgets/pseuds/FidgetFidgets). 
  * Inspired by [Encounter in Venice](https://archiveofourown.org/works/637574) by [FidgetFidgets](https://archiveofourown.org/users/FidgetFidgets/pseuds/FidgetFidgets). 



> Disclaimer: "Detective Conan" belongs to Gosho Aoyama and "Bishoujo Senshi Sailor Moon" belongs to Naoko Takeuchi. This fic is not really a crossover but only a Shinichi/Ai fic with cameo appearances of BSSM characters thrown in. 
> 
> A/N: I didn't want to post anything new before finishing "Ghost at Twilight", but this plunny has been so annoyingly persistent that I finally decided to get rid of it by posting the beginning (and committing myself to continuing it so that it will stop pestering me).

 

.

…

**The Red String of Fate**

by FS

dedicated to Ritz/aritzen

…

.

* * *

 

.

… **Zero** …

… _The Invisible Red Thread_ …

…

.

Modern psychologists contend that one will always find a considerable amount of ambivalence even in the most rational mind. An example of this curious phenomenon is Kudo Shinichi, who secretly believes himself to be the paragon of rationality like his idol Sherlock Holmes, whom one wouldn't expect to believe in the existence of destiny. And yet the incurable romantic in Shinichi has always believed in the red string of fate—the invisible thread which connects the pinkies of the destined lovers whose lives are inextricably intertwined and who will end up with each other no matter what life will bring.

.

…

.

* * *

 

.

… **One** …

… _Ogre_ …

…

.

Strutting about the extremely vast, extremely busy Tokyo Station with a bouquet of red camellias in his hand, Shinichi waits for the arrival of the Super Komachi, the bullet train with the prominent forty-two-feet long nose and obnoxious red colour, which is supposed to be symbolic of _Namahage_ but only reminds Shinichi of Sonoko's new nail polish. Ran and her father spent last week at an ex-client's estate in Morioka, Iwate Prefecture, after Conan-kun left for New York with his parents; and following his parents' advice, Shinichi is now going to fetch the girl of his dreams from the train station and surprise her with flowers expressing that, in his eyes, she is the epitome of loveliness and perfection.

.

…

…To be continued…

…

.

* * *

 

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A/N: All the chapters will be extremely short, and the story will only make sense if you follow the string to the end. :) As always, comments and critique are welcome.


	2. Cover

.

…

**The Red String of Fate**

by FS

dedicated to Ritz/aritzen

…

.

* * *

 

.

.

… **Two** …

… _Cover_ …

…

.

Inspired by Fruttero&Lucentini's _Il Colore del Destino_ , which Haibara discovered in an antiquarian bookshop and which can be literally translated as _The Colour of Destiny_ or _The Colour of Fate_ , Shinichi has decided to follow the colour he believes to be the colour of destiny for a whole day, abandoning himself to Fate to see in which direction it will lead him. He likes the ending of the story so much that he hopes to re-enact it in real life: after a day of roaming the city and its vicinity to chase fate, Shinichi will find himself in front of his childhood friend, who will get off the red bullet train wearing her new burgundy dress. He will hand her the bouquet of red camellias, and the two of them will walk off into the sunset together to live happily ever after.

Even the colour of the book cover seems to him a pointer of Fate: the colour of destiny in the story was lilac, but the previous owner of the book ("Tomoe", according to the Kanji on the front page) had wrapped it into a soft, luxurious paper of a dark, muted red colour which Haibara likened to blood. "For you," she said when she handed him the worn book, which was supposed to aid him in his quest of mastering Italian. "It's not an Italian corpse, but it will serve the purpose until you come across a real one!"

.

…

…To be continued…

…

.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A/N: The chapters are supposed to be little beads. :)


	3. Circlet

.

…

**The Red String of Fate**

by FS

dedicated to Ritz/aritzen

…

.

* * *

 

.

… **Three** …

… _Circlet_ …

…

.

* * *

 

The morning brought a perfect azure sky, reddish-golden clouds, and a mystery involving enough blood for the average movie vampire to feast himself into oblivion right after Shinichi stepped out of his mansion (an up-and-coming street gang had chosen the street where Shinichi lived out of all streets to dispose of its rogue members); and Shinichi, following Haibara's advice, tried to evade his curse by hopping a red open-top double decker of Skybus Tokyo. Japan was supposed to have one of the world's lowest crime rates—so Shinichi told himself—and what were the odds that he would stumble over a second murder if he stayed in the bus for the whole afternoon?

Against all odds, a young woman was poisoned just when the tour guide directed everyone's attention to Tokyo Tower, whose vermillion and white structure seemed to be Fate's signal for Shinichi to get off the bus. Since he couldn't possibly leave the crime scene, Shinichi made a mental note to return to Tokyo Tower after solving the case, which was a straightforward matter: the good old "cyanide poisoning out of greed" gone wrong when the rookie-murderer succumbed to her habit of nail biting, which resulted in her own death. Inspector Megure was visibly thankful that Shinichi skipped the dramatic denouement and only shared all his observations and deductions before leaving.

On the way to Tokyo Tower, a woman in red scurried past Shinichi. Her dark auburn hair, which smelled heavily of lilac, brushed against his cheek when she passed him, which he interpreted as Fate's invitation to follow the all the redheads he encountered. After all, the odds were that one of them would lead him to a flower shop within the next hour.

.

…

.

Haruna-sensei (the woman in red was a junior high school teacher, which Shinichi could easily deduce from the age of the students who greeted her on the way to Tsukino-san's café) was a romantic who loved the colour lilac (she was wearing lilac earrings and a lavender shirt beneath her red suit), piano music (her ringtone was the melody of a famous Chopin polonaise), and chocolate cake, which her date (one of her former students, to all appearances) had already ordered for her. Paying for his cup of coffee in advance, Shinichi let his eyes roam the café in search of another redhead since it would be awkward to tail the same woman for too long.

.

…

.

Fate sent him another redhead, who must be a former student of Haruna-sensei and the girlfriend of the man he believed to be Haruka-sensei's date. Redhead Number Two settled herself at Haruna-sensei's table after emerging from the ladies' room, where she must have gone to wash a stain off her skirt, as evidenced by the large but almost invisible water stain Shinichi's sharp eyes could still discern. At second glance, Osaka Naru (the young woman was called "Naru" by her boyfriend and "Osaka-san" by Haruna-sensei) was decidedly pretty with her shoulder-length red curls and turquoise eyes. In contrast to her unprepossessing, simple, casually-dressed boyfriend with thick, round nerd glasses, who also had a clumsy streak, Osaka-san was smartly, impeccably dressed in a classy corduroy skirt and a pristine white shirt. Since she was wearing a delicate burgundy circlet laid with amethysts (a creation of her mother, who was the proud owner of a renowned jewellery store in Azabu Juuban, as Shinichi could make out from their conversation), Shinichi decided to drop Haruna-sensei and follow her from now on.

.

…

.

The couple parted at Ichinohashi Park after "Umino" received a phone call, and Shinichi shadowed Osaka-san past the picturesque fountains of the park and then along the lively shopping streets of Azabu Juuban. But Osaka Naru didn't lead Shinichi past any flower shop but directly to her mother's jewellery store, where he encountered the third redhead. "Furuhata-san" had just stepped out of the door into the warm light of the autumn sun when Osaka-san approached her and grilled her about her brother, who seemed very popular among Osaka-san's former classmates. Pretending to admire the necklaces and bracelets in the window display, Shinichi wondered how it could take two casual acquaintances so long to exchange greetings and local gossip. After what felt like an eternity (in fact, Shinichi was already looking out for new red cues), Furuhata Unazuki (Shinichi had learned all about Furuhata-san's particulars, preferences, quirks, and even the particulars, preferences, and quirks of all her past and present lovers, family members, and friends in the meantime) finally took leave.

Third time was the charm, so it seemed, as the third redhead led Shinichi to the flower shop with the most gorgeous flower bouquets he had ever seen.

.

…

…To be continued…

…

.

 

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A/N: Initially, I wanted to add this story to "Ghost at Twilight" as an alternative prequel (a sort of prequel in an alternative reality). But since it can be a stand-alone fic or an alternative prequel to "Encounter in Venice" as well, I decided to post it separately. The setting is, as the readers of my two WIPs have probably figured out by now, Tokyo at the time Shinichi prepared to bring down the Organization, shortly before Heiji, Hattori, and Ai (in "Encounter in Venice") or Shiho (in "Ghost at Twilight") leave for Paris. So Shinichi and Ran are nineteen years old while Shiho is twenty (turning twenty-one).


	4. Arrest

.

…

**The Red String of Fate**

by FS

dedicated to Ritz/aritzen

…

.

* * *

 

.

… **Four** …

… _Arrest_ …

…

.

 

Since the train left Morioka, the woman in the window seat opposite her has been darting her furtive glances (or devouring her with her eyes whenever she felt herself unobserved), and Ran can't figure out why the stranger is so unabashedly fascinated by her. Embarrassingly, she only pays scant attention to Ran's face but seems mesmerized by Ran's body, which she has been ogling with the same expression with which Shinichi studies a particularly intriguing corpse. If the stranger were male, Ran would have shot him murderous glances before teaching him to fix his lecherous gaze on something less intimate than her breasts and her crotch (using her karate if vitriolic remarks don't suffice). But the diffident woman with grey-blue eyes and chocolate-coloured hair in a long French braid looks so kind and so genuinely infatuated with her that Ran's mind can't come up with anything appropriate to say.

"Excuse me!" The stranger flushes crimson when their eyes finally meet. "The colour of your dress is so… arresting… I can't find a word to describe it! I've tried to memorize it—not only all of its nuances in direct and diffused light but also its cast shadows—but I'm rambling although I must get off now!" She hurriedly gropes for her bags and her coat, adjusts her round spectacles, and beams at Ran before she bows. "It's the colour of fate," she asserts, flashing Ran another shy smile. "Are you interested in modelling? You can choose the poses and only have to wear this dress to our meetings."

"The colour of fate?" Ran's voice falters for a moment before Ran remembers which colour her dress was. "Ah, maybe it was the colour of fate once, but I fear it's no longer the colour of fate now. Also, I'm absolutely not into modelling, but thank you for asking!" Ran is too busy to juggle school and housework to take on a part-time job, and she knows herself well enough to predict that she wouldn't feel comfortable in the narcissistic world of modelling.

.

…

.

When the train pulls into the station, the stranger stumbles over otousan's outstretched legs into the corridor, causing otousan to wake up with the cry, "Yoko-chan, my love, I shall murder all your rivals in cold blood!"

"Il Colore del Destino!" The stranger turns to Ran for the last time before she gets off the train with her two large bags and her three handbags, which are dangling from her shoulders. "The Colour of Destiny! I borrowed it from one of my former models but forgot to return it because I couldn't find it. She died before I could get her a replacement. Your dress is the same colour as…" Her words get lost in the hustle and bustle at the train station, drowned by a cacophony of voices, rustle, shuffle, and clatter; and Ran contents herself with returning her smile and her airy wave. Beside Ran, otousan is waving as well, yawning and blinking after the stranger with teary eyes until he suddenly lets out a spine-chilling, inhuman howl and slaps himself so hard on his forehead that Ran bows her head in shame at her father's lack of social awareness.

"Hush, people are staring at us! Don't make a spectacle of yourself like last time when Itsuki Alice snatched the role of Irene Adler from Yoko-san!" Wondering whether the stranger was a former client or a celebrity in disguise, she uneasily whispers into his ear, "Do you know who she was? She seriously asked me to model for her agency although she only liked the colour of my dress!" It's odd since the woman with the French braid didn't look in the least glamorous or professional, Ran muses. Most probably, the stranger was a former client of otousan's, or Ran has just escaped a shady deal.

"It was Yumeno Yumemi!" otousan groans. "Don't tell me you've been asked by _the_ Yumeno Yumemi and rejected her offer, Ran!"

.

…

…To be continued…

…

.

 

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A/N: I absolutely don't have time these days, but my muses for all my three WIPs are ruining my life.
> 
> Ritz: Haha, I could have posted the last chapter as four different drabbles, but the three redheads had to be in one chapter for a reason. ;) You can imagine the scenes as beads and gems of various colours strung on the same necklace or bracelet while each bead is connected to the chain by one letter in the title.


	5. Servant

.

…

**The Red String of Fate**

by FS

dedicated to Ritz/aritzen

…

* * *

 

.

… **Five** …

… _Servant_ …

...

.

"You aren't following the signals of fate—you're setting up your real-life fairy tale by cherrypicking the cues which lead to your anticipated, desired outcome! If fate existed, you'd be betraying and manipulating it! The protagonist of the book sincerely let himself drift through life for a day and was amazed to find himself in front of his own house and his own wife; but in your case, there will be no genuine surprise, no stupefied amazement—because you know the colour of the dress she is wearing in advance! I'm telling you this because I can already see this unbearably smug grin on your face! Please do remember for once that the antidote you've taken is still only a temporary solution and that you're going shrink tomorrow morning!…"

She paused for an instant and sighed before she continued in a slightly anxious voice, "If you end up spending the night with her during the perfect date you've planned, do remember to scram before five or six a.m at the latest unless you want to have a taste of her combat skills! As much as I value you as my human guinea pig, I'm not going to wait for you in front of your mansion with a set of spare clothes! Don't expect me to bail you out if you get yourself into such a situation!"

He didn't plan anything of the sort, Shinichi protested, mortified by her accusation that he was trying to seduce Ran. It hadn't escaped him that Haibara sounded more piqued than usual, either because she was still affected by the sight of the mutilated corpses the gangsters had dumped on the street or by the fact that he had disturbed her nap to ask her to choose the bouquet for him. Perhaps her anger wasn't entirely unjustified, but his reasons were valid as well! Among the people Shinichi could call (and he didn't count his mother in!), Haibara was the only one who had a sense of beauty and good taste. Shinichi was also overwhelmed by the abundance of beauty which assaulted his eyes the moment he stepped into this flower shop, which was bursting with exquisitely, spectacularly beautiful flowers with just as spectacularly noble names and spectacularly high price tags. Since this was supposed to be a special occasion, he was going to splurge a princely sum on something as ephemeral as flowers—but he naturally wanted to make sure that he didn't waste money on flowers which wouldn't match Ran.

"Just get her something in your colour of destiny!" Haibara suggested. "Then you can hold the bouquet in front of your nose and follow it instead of shadowing complete strangers like a creep!"

"Apropos creep: you can't imagine how many redheaded women one can find in this district! Gingers in all shades and even a real Carrot Top!" He lowered his voice since Furuhata-san, who was rummaging in her Fusae purse for the note her friend had given her, had begun to give him dirty looks. "If we were in a Holmes story, we'd be in 'The Red-headed League'! Wait a minute, another redheaded woman has just entered the shop… I can't believe it!"

"Please keep me out of this since you've lost it!" She sounded flabbergasted. "What did you have for breakfast and lunch?"

"Coffee! And I'll leave you alone after you've chosen a bouquet for me!"

"I'm not your servant! So you had coffee, and?"

"Nothing, just coffee and a sandwich from the tour guide!" he snapped. The saleswoman, whom Furuhata-san had shown the violet post-it with the name of the flowers her friend wanted, had just asked him to move aside so that she could fetch the last bouquet of red roses (in front of which he was standing!) for her customer. The "Samourai Rose" was a large, velvety thornless rose with a perfect oval bud and a mild, sweet fragrance. It would have looked lovely in Ran's hands since its buds were shaped like Ran's face, but since Shinichi had been bickering about breakfast and lunch with Haibara on the phone, he spotted it too late… And Furuhata Unazuki, the Carrot Top, flashed him a petty, victorious smirk before she left.

.

…

…To be continued…

…

.


	6. Iris

.

…

**The Red String of Fate**

by FS

dedicated to Ritz/aritzen

…

.

* * *

 

.

… **Six** …

… _Iris_ …

…

.

It was only natural that he would see redheads everywhere if he looked out for them, Haibara lectured him. "It's like students who see armies of students on their way to university, or pregnant women who begin to see babies and other pregnant women wherever they look. Your game of following fate's string sounds fun but stalking strangers isn't! I'm also shuddering at your staging of a modern 'Red String Romance' because it's _not_ romantic but cheap! It's actually unbearably cheesy—I'm disappointed!"

"You're only jealous because no one is buying expensive flowers for you," Shinichi taunted. "Now be a good friend and help me choose a bouquet and I might thank you with a present of your choice!" Returning the smile of the saleswoman, who had been waiting behind the counter and throwing him wondering glances since Furuhata-san left, Shinichi gestured that he still needed time on the phone and that she could focus on the next customer instead.

"It's wonderful to see you again, Kaolinite-san! Amazing, isn't it, how fast a whole year has passed?" exclaimed the saleswoman, steering her radiant smile thirty centimetres to the right although her guarded gaze implied that her joy of seeing her new customer was of a purely professional and absolutely not personal nature.

"Kaori Night. Night! Not 'Nite'," the tall woman with bright burgundy hair, whose Japanese was flawless and colloquial although her Caucasian features and pale skin betrayed her origin, corrected the saleswoman's pronunciation with an exasperated sigh. "I'm sick of this weird Asian quirk of pretending not to know how to pronounce the simplest English words! It surely can't be so jawbreaking to say 'Night' instead of 'Nite', can it?"

Shaking her lush, long burgundy mane, which was brushed back and kept away from her face by a thin burgundy headband made of braided false hair and which looked like it had been curled on a hot iron and fixed with hairspray and wax, the irate customer reluctantly accepted the saleswoman's effusive apologies and let her steely gaze roam the baskets of hydrangeas and azaleas at the door. "Nothing toxic this time, please!" she ordered. "Only flowers which can be eaten!"

.

…

.

"The redhead who just entered the shop wants flowers which aren't poisonous and which can be eaten," Shinichi whispered into the phone after Haibara had commented that nothing he could buy for her would make her choose a bouquet for him. "Can you imagine that?"

"Seems like a case for a psychiatrist or for an asylum! Either that, or she simply has a plant-eating cat or dog at home. I've seen poodles chewing grass, which makes them look even more like sheep. In any case, she is _no case_ for you to solve since she wants to buy a _non-poisonous_ plant—so please leave the poor woman alone and don't stalk her to wherever she will be going!" Apropos of nothing, Haibara suddenly began to attack his "quaint, silly concept of fate": "The legend of the red thread is actually the most unromantic story I've ever heard! I hope that you still remember it since we've read it at school!"

Granting his wish to hear the story again from her mouth since he did remember it but didn't know what was supposed to be so unromantic about it, Haibara proceeded in a voice dripping with boredom, "Once upon a time, a little boy threw a rock at a little girl and then ran away in his rage because he was told by an elderly man under the moonlight that he—the boy, not the elderly man!—and the little girl were connected by the red string of fate and therefore would become each other's spouses someday. Years later, when the boy had become a man, he agreed to marry the woman who had been chosen for him by his mother. When he lifted the veil of his bride before they went to bed on their wedding night, he realized with smug satisfaction that she was one of the great beauties of his village but was wearing an ornament to hide a scar on her eyebrow. His blushing bride told him she had been hurt by a jerk who threw a rock at her while she was a little kid… So the question is not why I dislike the story because it seems quite natural to me to detest the concept of enduring a destined spouse for life and abide by the arbitrary decision of a tyrannical god. The question is: what do _you_ and all the people who love the story like about it?"

"It's reassuring to know that there is someone in the world whose life will always be connected to yours. It's the same as the soul mate theory, which is so popular in Western cultures, if you prefer that one." After a pause, partly out of defensiveness, partly out of confusion because she had fallen silent, he added in a sharp voice, "Almost everything in life is harder if you have to do it all by yourself—but I suppose a loner like you who voluntarily shuts herself off from other people and locks herself in her cellar for days and weeks can't comprehend that!"

His speech sounded bitter and pathetic even to his own ears. But it was extremely irritating how Haibara had begun to obsess over her quest of finding the permanent cure, disappearing into her lab directly after school and avoiding him as if he couldn't simply take the temporary antidote to go to Paris. In a way, Shinichi had begun to feel abandoned by her because it was different to be with her than with the Detective Boys. It was impossible to have anything resembling a sensible talk with the Professor; and without a fellow adult to chat with without faking childish innocence, even the murder cases had begun to lose their appeal.

.

…

.

"Ah, have you been anxious and lonely lately because your Osakan friend has been too busy romancing his girlfriend to pay you attention? The destined lovers end up with each other except when the red string only connects their lives but doesn't lead to a marriage—which is, admittedly, not what the original version of the story meant."

"The deity in charge of the red string in the original Chinese legend is the matchmaking god!" Shinichi smirked into the phone. "Of course they're always going to marry in the end! Like soul mates, if you prefer that variant of the story."

She was sorry for shattering his romantic illusions—she gleefully chuckled—but contrary to popular belief, the red string of fate wasn't the same as the concept of soul mates. Soul mates were the two parts of the same human being that had been forcefully separated by Zeus, who was irked by their cheekiness and arrogance. Hence the two parts of the whole, which were destined to spend their lives in search of each other, were truly perfect for each other but only seldom if ever met since the chance of them appearing at the same time and place and finding each other in life was so rare that it was almost non-existent! Even if their paths accidentally crossed against all odds, the gods would probably object to their marriage instead of trying to match them up with each other.

"So, if the two legends were in the same universe, the person tied to you by the red string would be the imperfect lover you will always end up with while the soul mate would be your ideal of a lover whom you can never be with?" Shinichi must admit that her conclusion sounds logical although he had never seen it from this angle.

"Considering that most marriages aren't ideal even in the few cases in which the couple are moderately happy with each other and stay together for life, my theory makes sense," she wickedly remarked. "So, according to the two legends you like so much, you'll usually end up with someone who will aggravate you most of the time while your ideal lover will walk into a bar just when you've left or will accept a party invitation which you've just declined."

"That doesn't sound like compatibility to me!"

"It depends on what your definition of 'compatibility' is! Biologically, the ideal chemistry is the chemistry between 'opposites attract' and not the chemistry between 'birds of the same feather.' Hence the ideal lover is the person with whom the physical chemistry is perfect—the mysterious lover whose kiss makes you swoon and whose love makes you lose your head and do the most grandiose and idiotic things—not the one whose thoughts you can guess and who will obediently watch all the movies you like with you."

"Are you trying to say that Ran and I don't have any chemistry?" Much to his surprise, his tone sounded more challenging than intended.

There was a brief silence before she replied, in a voice which betrayed her utter exhaustion.

"That's what _you_ seem to think—it's not what I'm implying. You two are certainly different enough not to be 'birds of a feather'. Sadly, you two also look like fraternal twins and won't qualify for the "opposites attract" label either even though you do everything possible to show me the brain-shrinking power of your ideal love. But that was mean of me, I didn't mean to diminish your angel's beauty—which I admire—by comparing her to you…"

It was bewildering how easily she regained her composure by mocking Shinichi's love life, but Shinichi was even more surprised by the ease with which he forgave her this uncharacteristic fit of cruelty. "Whatever, I don't like your legends because they both predict a life ruined by love, especially if you combine them with each other! You will either end up with someone you've never wanted to be with and miss the soul mate who would have been the perfect match for you just because fate has pulled the strings—or you do manage to find and marry your soul mate but will spend a life in misery and heartache with them just because the asshole of a deity who is sitting on Olympus or the asshole of a deity who is in charge of the red string, which connects you to someone else, will do everything possible to break up you two!"

"What did _you_ have for breakfast and lunch?" Shinichi inquired in disbelief. Even by her own standards, today's Haibara Ai (the first redhead Shinichi had met, whom Shinichi had forgotten to count because he had grown so accustomed to her face) was unbearable.

.

…

.

"Irises aren't edible, alas," said the saleswoman to the tall redhead in the long red dress and elegant black coat, who was eyeing the bouquets of purple irises the saleswoman presented to her. "They're perfect since they're the symbol of royalty and wisdom and hope. We even have 'Sapphire Beauty' in a wonderful shade of violet! The colour of fate, as his wife always used to say—"

"Well, she has been dead for ten years by now, and there's the saying that one should let the dead rest," the handsome redhead coldly stated. "But I'm taking these lilacs since they can't do any harm."

The lilacs were in the same cool shade of violet as "Sapphire Beauty" and had a most annoyingly sweet scent. "Pancakes and coffee," Haibara said on the phone, answering Shinichi's question as Redhead Number Four (whom Shinichi couldn't follow because he had yet to buy flowers for Ran) left the shop. The saleswoman was smiling expectantly at Shinichi but Haibara absolutely refused to choose a bouquet. "It's not me who will marry her," she declared. "Just get her an edible flower in your colour of fate! If it doesn't only look great but also tastes great, I'm sure that she will appreciate it!"

"What about a bouquet of irises?" the saleswoman suggested with an amused smile, which made Shinichi suspect that she had been eavesdropping on him for longer than he thought. "Do you know that the Goddess of Rainbow in Greek Mythology was called 'Iris'? For the girl you're talking to, they will be most fitting!"

.

…

…To be continued…

…

.

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A/N: Since my word processor counts the Japanese honourifics as words and I'm too lazy to count the words myself, I've edited out the word count of each chapter. Maybe I will add them later after finishing the fic. It was just a tongue-in-cheek play on how gems are measured by carats since the scenes are supposed to be beads or gems strung on the same chain.


	7. Oracle

.

…

**The Red String of Fate**

by FS

dedicated to Ritz/aritzen

…

.

* * *

 

.

… **Seven** …

… _Oracle_ …

…

.

Rather than the Goddess of Rainbow, the girl on the phone should be dubbed the Goddess of Rain, Shinichi told the saleswoman, which caused Haibara to end the call with the words that, since he preferred sunshine, the Goddess of Rain was going to leave him. She didn't bother to answer the phone when he called back, which unnerved Shinichi more than he would have expected.

"Lovers often quarrel," soothed him the saleswoman with a compassionate smile. "It's nothing which a bouquet or a pot of purple hyacinths can't fix!" Purple or violet hyacinths express deep sorrow and regret over the wrong you had committed—she informed him—and no girl in love could resent a boyfriend who sent her flowers after a fight.

Apparently, the saleswoman had formed a distorted impression of Shinichi and Haibara's relationship since she only managed to overhear snatches of their conversation while attending on "Kaolinite" (it still amused Shinichi that Ms Kaori Night hadn't noticed that she had received a nickname from the pun-loving saleswoman). And when Shinichi put the supportive saleswoman right on the fact that he had another girlfriend and Haibara was only his neighbour and reluctant confidante, she was completely dumbfounded.

"You had the same expression on your face as the married men who buy their wives flowers," she claimed, looking not in the least apologetic about her intrusion into his private affairs. "They all love to bicker with their wives and moan about the puzzling antics of the fair sex, but they're all very attached to their women nonetheless."

.

…

.

Obviously, Shinichi couldn't let a woman who mistook Haibara Ai for his love interest choose the bouquet. If her knowledge of flowers was at the same level as her knowledge of people, she would get him in deep trouble.

His mother, on the other hand, wasn't even trying to be more helpful than the ever-yawning girl.

"Flower presents are best when they've been chosen by yourself. Just compare a few bouquets you like with each other and look up their meanings in the language of flowers so that there won't be any misunderstandings! You can also ask the salesperson for help before you pick the most fitting bouquet for the occasion!"

"There are so many beautiful flowers here—I don't have the time to look up the meanings of all of them! You can at least suggest a flower, you know? As long as it's not too extravagant, the price won't be an issue!"

"Since when have you become so stingy, Shin-chan?" she raised her voice in dismay. "One mustn't stint on the woman one loves! Get her the most gorgeous bouquet you can find! It's not like you're short of money!"

"But the price tags for these flowers are unbelievable! Lily of the valley: forty thousand yen. Gold of Kinabalu Orchid: six hundred and fifty thousand yen! You can even pay twenty million US dollar— that's over two billion yen!—to order a bouquet of Juliet Roses. There are affordable flowers as well but they're all remarkably expensive."

"There are flowers which are even more expensive than Juliet roses," his mother chuckled. "But since you can never buy them, you might as well get the Juliet roses for her!" One didn't only need plenty of money but also plenty of patience for a love that would last—she added in jest—and since patience wasn't Shinichi's strong suit but he had more money to spend than the average man, he might as well spend it on the girl!

The same flower can have many different meanings or even opposite meanings (which was why flower language was often even more ambiguous than the good old wordy love letter), but camellias generally stood for humility, discretion, gratitude, perfection, and an ideal love—she suggested at last (after Shinichi had threatened to tell his father that she had secretly read the unfinished manuscript of the romance novel his father was still hiding from her). "Since camellias only have positive meanings, you can't ever go wrong with them."

.

…

.

Just when his eyes fell on the bouquet of red camellias at the door, the fifth redhead appeared on the street. This time it was a beautiful little girl of nine or ten who, being a late bloomer, still had missing front teeth and the large childish eyes of a seven-year-old. Redhead Number Five was wearing a red coat, white shoes, and a frilly, lacy lavender silk dress with a red bow matching the colour of her brilliant burgundy hair, which had been artfully done up in two heart-shaped buns on the top of her head. Surreally, she was accompanied by an alien: a tall, graceful man in a monster costume, who must be a passionate cosplayer or a professional actor since the mask looked impressively professional.

"It makes sense that your colour of fate is red," said Shinichi's mother on the phone, after Shinichi had informed her that (not counting Haibara alias Redhead Number Zero) he had already met five redheads during the same day. "Red is the colour of blood—the colour of cases!" With a chuckle, she teasingly added, "It's also the hair colour of the girl who is always staring at your face."

"Oh, please!" Shinichi rolled his eyes. "I know she loves me as her invaluable human guinea-pig! It wouldn't surprise me if she kept a log of how I'm doing!"

"She loves you, and I like both girls. But I prefer Ran-chan for you since you've always wanted to protect her and she will always keep you safe," his mother unexpectedly said, and Shinichi could feel his stomach churn at the statement although he didn't know why. "Haibara-san is the mysterious type—too complicated for you. When you were small, you often said that you had to solve mysteries because you're afraid of not knowing things. You aren't nearly as tone-deaf as you try to make yourself believe. You've always been afraid of losing control, which is why you've never learned to sing despite your fantastic ear and your strong voice…"

On the street, the little girl stumbled over her own feet when she dashed towards the flower shop, whereupon the loop of the red string of the heart-shaped balloon she had been holding slipped off her tiny wrist, causing the balloon to float away. After a moment of speechless awe as she watched her lavender balloon travel through the air, blown off course in a sudden gust of wind until it was swallowed by the high, gold-tinted clouds above, her tears began to fall and ran down her face until she sobbed and her shoulders shook.

Grabbing at the fur of the monster, who had been too busy catching her and helping her on her feet to save her balloon, with both hands, she wept bitterly for the treasure she had just lost. An irrational stab of jealousy and guilt shot through Shinichi when he saw the monster squatting down to console the little girl. Haibara had clung to him once while she was crying about her sister's death, but in contrast to the hairy alien, Shinichi didn't know how to react.

Strong emotions often exhausted Shinichi and also terrified him, especially when the puzzling shrunk scientist was concerned. Compared to Haibara, Ran was easier to distract since Ran's moods were never darker than an overcast sky. Ran was a true samurai—someone who usually protected others and who didn't need to be protected, at least not from herself. She might be terrified of absurd things like ghosts and could lose sleep over a sad movie for hours, and she forgot about her karate skills when she needed them most—but her ability to recover was strong and she lacked the nervous frailty of the people who shied away from their own sorrow.

"Maybe I should buy a flower for Haibara as well," Shinichi remarked when he saw how Redhead Number Five brightened up after the monster allowed her to choose a bouquet. Now her gaze was shifting uncertainly between a white rose wedding bouquet and a gorgeous lavender-blue rose before she bent over to sniff at the latter, whose scent was addictive even to Shinichi's analytical, nonchalant, perfume-intolerant nose.

"You mustn't buy a blue rose for a platonic friend!" was his mother's blunt answer when Shinichi told her that he considered sending Haibara a lavender rose to thank her for her hard work; and Shinichi, who thought the statement to be uncharacteristically mean of his mother, reminded her that Haibara had sacrificed months of sleep for him.

"I don't object to the idea of you giving Haibara-san flowers to thank her for the antidotes—it's the meaning of the lavender rose, which would dwarf any flower you can give Ran-chan! The lavender rose is the real blue rose—the fabled blue moon you're willing to steal for your beloved! Unless you want to rob a bank or talk an oil sheikh into making you his heir so that you can buy a giant bouquet of Juliet roses for your girl—which would be ostentatious and overly extravagant, if you ask me—you should either give Ran-chan that lavender rose or stay away from it! Seriously, Shin-chan, you need to make up your mind and follow through the procedure for once! The secret of happiness in love is to focus on the person you want and stick by your decision as long as possible!"

.

…

.

Meanwhile, another scene had unfolded in the flower shop. "Chibi Chibi!" the saleswoman, who had spotted Redhead Number Five, had exclaimed, whereupon the little girl cried, "Ann, Anne, Annabelle!" and leapt into the saleswoman's outstretched arms. "Ann, Anne, Annabelle", whose mousy brunette hair was held together by a pale violet band, eyed the little girl's vibrant hair with open envy but without viciousness. "You pretty natural redheads with your striking hair and your vivid eyes and porcelain faces!" she said in French, which Shinichi understood because he had begun to study French for his Paris trip. "I'd be deliriously happy if I possessed only half of your beauty!"

The monster, who was either painfully shy or had a history with Ann, was hiding behind a gingko tree at a corner of the street, gesturing to "Chibi Chibi" (who had turned her head) that she shouldn't give his presence away. To Shinichi's amusement, Ann was oblivious to their silent communication since she was eager to report on her latest encounter with Kaolinite. In England, an unmarried woman who wore lilac blossoms was said to stay a spinster forever, Ann recalled with glee. Also, some people couldn't tolerate the lilac's strong scent, and "Tomoe-san" was one of them.

"Kaolinite got her just desert when she chose the lilacs out of all flowers! In Victorian times, giving someone lilacs meant that you were trying to remind them of their first love, especially if the lilacs were in a light shade of purple!" But the lilac was the flower for widows, and it was edible, Ann conceded. In a way, the lilacs were perfect for the retired prof—they only didn't work as Kaolinite hoped.

"But Usagi said that lilacs told us to enjoy love!" lisped Chibi Chibi through her missing front teeth.

"That's true, too. They're dazzling and sweet but bloom only for a short while," Ann taught Chibi Chibi. "Romances are even more ephemeral—hence the lilacs remind us that we should enjoy love as long as it lasts and never, ever, regret a past love!"

.

…

.

"Before you're in a committed, stable relationship, you only have a narrow time frame to act!" Shinichi's mother concluded after her speech on why Shinichi shouldn't get the lavender rose for Haibara but for Ran. "You naturally believe that you're the perfect match for your girl but there will always be someone who is an even better match! If you don't take things seriously and make your intentions known fast enough, someone else who knows what he wants will steal her heart!"

"What does the Oracle of Delphi say about them?" Ann cheerily asked the little redhead, who was beholding the bouquet of camellias Shinichi considered buying.

The eyes of the little girl—a clear, limpid azure blue—clouded over as she sniffed the small bouquet and tenderly ran the tips of her fingers over the flower heads. Without doubt, Chibi Chibi was a natural actress, who could star in a big-budget movie and become world-famous overnight if a talent scout discovered her.

"I see auburn hair, a princess, blood, a lilac dress, and a man-eating ogre… I see a cactus with fragrant white blossoms and a dangerous mute mermaid, who will steal my love!" She shuddered and blinked, and her whole demeanour changed as though she had just woken up.

"How horrible!" Ann gasped while trying to suppress a laugh.

"Since I can't allow that to happen," the Oracle of Delphi declared with the demeanour of a wise empress, "I'm going to buy these flowers for Yumemi-chan!"

"Actually, I'm going to buy these!" Shinichi hastily said and grabbed the bouquet of camellias before Ann could interfere. After all, the little redhead clearly preferred other flowers to the camellias before she started the "Oracle of Delphi" act, and if Shinichi lingered for too long in this flower shop, he would arrive too late at the train station.

Placing the money for the camellias on the counter despite Ann's vehement protests, Shinichi appeased the stupefied little redhead, whose large eyes were filling with tears, that he had seen the camellias first and that she could buy the lavender rose she loved so much now that he had taken the responsibility of fighting fate from her. "It's even in the same colour as your balloon!" he sneakily said, whereupon Ann frowned while Chibi Chibi brightened.

"Moron!" Ann hissed under her breath, which scandalized Shinichi since he had never met a saleswoman like her. "How dare you steal the flowers from a nine-year-old?" she sniffed. "You should have taken those irises or the lavender rose! I hope the camellias are really cursed and won't bring you too much joy!"

.

…

…To be continued…

…

.

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A/N: The muses for my fics are robbing me of my sleep! I'm extremely busy these days and am trying to avoid writing fics since work is piling up again. But lo and behold, I'm updating again!
> 
> I got the plunny for this fic while writing my two other WIPs since there are many flashbacks and alternative scenes which I can't add in "Encounter in Venice" and "Ghost at Twilight" (both fics are already so long without them, and it would be odd to add the flashbacks to both). Hence I thought I would write a stand-alone prequel for the WIPs after finishing them. But the plunny has been nagging at me for years (and it takes me longer to end "Ghost at Twilight" than I thought since I completely misjudged the size of the chapters) so that I decided to get rid of it by posting. At least this story will only be a "short" multi-chapter (like "Sarcasms").


	8. Narcissus

 

.

…

**The Red String of Fate**

by FS

dedicated to Ritz/aritzen

…

.

* * *

 

.

… **Seven (2)** …

… _Narcissus_ …

…

.

* * *

 

 

Since he had to concede that it wasn't the nicest gesture to snatch the flowers away from a nine-year-old girl, Shinichi grudgingly offered Chibi Chibi his red camellias. There were pink camellias which he could take instead; and with a slight stretch of imagination, pink could be regarded as a brighter shade of red.

Much to his relief, Chibi Chibi had become so fixated on the lavender rose that she barely registered his offer. He could fight fate much better than her since he was older, she told Shinichi and then asked Ann to show her all the lavender roses Ann had. There were lavender roses of various sizes and shapes in all shades of purple in the shop, displayed in small clusters in different corners of the room as though their combined beauty would be too much for the customers to handle.

Pale lavender-grey roses like Nuage and Silverston, which looked like they had been carved out of marble and illuminated by the rising moon at twilight, were lined up with pale lilac lavender roses evocative of fairy tales and myths like Purple Haze and Ocean Song. The greyish Amnesia, deeply melancholic in its muted rosé and faded lavender, directed the viewer's gaze to more cheerful and feminine rosé- and violet-tinted lavender roses like Nautica and Lady Moon. Cool Water, an elegant rose with a large, beautiful star-shaped bloom in a unique shade of purple with pink undertones, was grouped with other lavender roses with pink undertones like the ethereal, almost white Remembrance, the pale lavender Faith, the rosé-coloured lavender rose with the misleading name Blue Curiosa, and roses in brighter shades of blueish pink like Cool Paris. The deep mauve and mauve-blend Neptune (intoxicatingly scented, with an impressively handsome bloom whose double petals were blushed purple on the very edge) led the viewer's eye and nose to lilac and lavender-blue roses like Blueberry and the thornless Soulmate (which—according to Ann—was a promise of lifelong commitment because its vase life could last up to a fortnight, a remarkably long time span for a cut flower).

There were bi-coloured roses in a corner of the room as well: Deep Purple (with pink-edged lavender petals), Rock Fire (with brighter lavender petals and even darker red edges), Paradise (with petals in an enchanting shade of lavender with deep-ruby edges), Moody Blues (with red-blushed lavender petals, of which the outer ones were darker than the inner ones), and Queen of the Night (a bi-colour rose with pink-blushed petals which were rosé outside and deep purple inside). Intensely scented lavender roses like Neptune were kept apart from other lavender roses with a distinctive fragrance like the nearly thornless, silvery-lavender Sterling Silver (which sported the quintessential rose scent mingled with a citrus fragrance) and Angel Face (a fresh, charming floribunda rose with ruffled lavender-pink petals, which smelled gloriously sweet and fruity).

Chibi Chibi (and Shinichi, who was paying attention) also learned from Ann that different lavender roses also had different symbolic meanings according to their colours and characteristics and health. Blue Curiosa expressed the sender's deepest love and admiration. Pale lilac lavender roses meant enchantment or (when they were also thornless) love at first sight. Deep purple or lilac Soulmate roses stood for lifelong commitment and enduring love. Lavender-blue roses, which were as close to a real blue rose as a rose without a dye or a man-made genetic mutation could be, represented an impossible dream—a figment of one's imagination—or the mysterious and unobtainable.

.

…

.

Overwhelmed by the overflowing profusion of lavender roses, Shinichi decided against buying one for Haibara. Their meanings were all romantically flavoured in some way; and while he would have liked to give her a rose with a blue undertone to tell her that she was irritatingly difficult to read, his mother was right that he couldn't appear at the train station with a lavender rose which he was going to give a friend and not his girl.

"What about lilacs to express your first stirrings of love for her?" suggested Ann, who had already forgotten her disdain for Shinichi after showing Chibi Chibi the lavender roses, when Shinichi remarked that he was still searching for a flower present for the friend who wasn't answering his calls. "Or would you prefer hyacinths to say, 'Please forgive me'?"

In the end, Shinichi tried to ask Haibara directly what flowers she liked, but she didn't reply to his messages—and Ann, who had sold Chibi Chibi the white rose wedding bouquet and a thornless, fragrant blue lavender rose (whose name Shinichi didn't catch because he was preoccupied with typing messages) in the meantime, commented that no man ever fumed and fretted so much about a woman's silence when a love interest wasn't concerned.

.

…

.

Good—Shinichi thought—then he wasn't going to buy the panda-eyed wretch a flower as planned; and if she missed out on these exquisite flowers, which were the most beautiful flowers he had ever seen, she would only have to blame it on herself alone! He couldn't stay here for too long when the timing was perfect to leave. It had occurred to Shinichi that he had to wait until Chibi Chibi left the shop, as he could see an abundance of red flowers inside the shop but nothing red outside the shop unless he tossed his camellias out of the open door into the street and convinced "Ann, Anne, Annabelle" that he was ripe for the asylum.

Lingering at the door and pretending to behold the red azaleas until Chibi Chibi left since Ann shouldn't get the impression that he was stalking the girl, Shinichi listened with one ear to Ann's convoluted retelling of the tragic love story of Apollo and Hyacinth (who wasn't only associated with the hyacinths but also with the iris), which ended with the former accidentally killing the latter.

"… And since Apollo didn't want Hyacinth's soul to be taken by Pluto or Hades, the god of the underworld, he used his power to turn Hyacinth into a flower…"

"How sad," Shinichi half-heartedly commented while gazing past Ann's head through the open door.

On the street, the monster had removed his fluffy green and turquoise head for a moment to put it back after readjusting his hairnet. Under the fine-meshed brown hairnet, his smooth auburn hair was gleaming copper-red in the autumn sun.

.

…

.

Wonderful, Shinichi thought after leaving the flower shop to resume the hunt. Fate, showing an unusual generosity of spirit, had sent him two redheads at the same time. However, the level of difficulty had been raised, and Shinichi had to be careful since the alien was highly perceptive. There were several instances in which the tall dancer turned his head just enough to see Shinichi in his peripheral vision (by now Shinichi was certain that the man was a dancer since no one but a ballet dancer had this effortless and graceful turn but also this slightly lanky, gangly albeit perfectly straight gait); and Shinichi had to wait for a minute when the whimsical pair arrived at another street corner since he had the suspicion that the monster would be waiting for him.

Since he would be forced to walk past them in order to uphold his cover if the monster really waited, Shinichi considered telling Chibi Chibi and her companion the truth and risk the danger of being mistaken for a lunatic or inventing an excuse to join them until he spotted the next redheaded person. But when he turned round the corner, both the monster and the girl had disappeared. There was a high wall at the end of the small side street, which was too smooth to be climbed. The pair must have entered one of the houses—Shinichi deduced—since it was unlikely that the monster had thrown the girl over his shoulder or taken her into his arms and, like a ninja, run up and over such a wall.

.

…

.

While Shinichi was debating with himself whether he should return to Tokyo Tower again because there was nothing—really absolutely nothing!—red in the vicinity apart from his camellias (since when had red gone out of fashion for roofs and windows and cars?), his mobile phone rang. So Haibara had given up her sulking antics at last, Shinichi thought, flashing a triumphant smile at the screen, before his stomach dropped.

"Your mother is behaving strangely," Tou-san said. "I wonder if she has secretly read the novel I'm writing… I'm sure she has touched the manuscript. You two have just talked on the phone. Did she tell you anything about it?"

"Nothing about your book," Shinichi asserted, which wasn't a lie since his mother hadn't mentioned anything about the novel at all. "We've only talked about the surprise flowers for Ran." Ran and he were going to have a date tonight—Shinichi informed Tou-san. "… And I wanted it to be special since this is the last time that I've taken the temporary antidote. I bought camellias as Kaa-san suggested because she told me that they don't have any negative connotations at all."

"Camellias are an excellent choice! They're the ideal flowers to tell your girlfriend that you adore her because in your eyes, she is the epitome of loveliness and perfection. In England in Victorian times, one sent camellias to one's beloved to say, 'My destiny is in your hands.' You can't ever go wrong with them."

Come to think of it, he could use Shinichi's idea of giving his girlfriend flowers for the ending of his new novel, Tou-san mused. He could aim for a terrible, tragic misunderstanding which would never be cleared up since flower language was dangerously ambiguous. The shy protagonist would give his love interest a narcissus to say, "Stay as sweet as you are," and to remind her that spring was on its way while she would stumble over the other, more common but negative meaning of the flower, which was "egotism". Disappointed and furious at what she perceived to be an insult, she would distance herself from the protagonist and eventually fall in love with another man.

"Why can't you give them a happy ending?" asked Shinichi, who was bewildered by the disastrous endings in his father's latest two novels (a development which was especially puzzling because his parents were in a perfectly happy marriage despite their occasional tiffs and the yearly serious quarrel).

"Because the protagonist is trying too hard to find the love of his life. The ones who soar high often fall hard, at least in tragedies. I don't know why my novel has taken a darker turn again, but I usually aim for the most logical ending no matter what happens to the characters. Do you remember the Zen story of the overly eager apprentice who wanted to find Zen faster than other students? He told the Zen master that he was going to work three times as hard as he had to, and the Zen master replied that he would need three times as much time to find the goal in that case, because—"

"—because 'when you have one eye on the goal, you only have one eye on the path!'" Shinichi, who had always found these Zen stories unbearably preachy, snapped. "Of course I know that story. Why do you have to repeat it to me now?"

"Because you've asked me about my book." Tou-san sounded genuinely puzzled. " _You_ 're the one who asked me why the protagonist won't get the girl. But you aren't in the best of moods today. What happened?"

Haibara didn't reply to the messages I sent her, Shinichi was going to say before he realized that his father would misread his annoyance as romantic longing as Ann did. "I'm trying to follow the red string of fate but lost the last cue," he said instead, which unavoidably triggered a stream of unwanted questions from his inquisitive father.

"If the Red String legend were true, you wouldn't have to follow the cues of fate," Tou-san remarked after Shinichi had told him about the redheads he had been shadowing all day. "The main tenet of the Red String legend is that you can never flee from fate. You can relax because your destined partner will always be connected to your life. If you try too hard, you'll only need more time."

.

…

.

A flash of pinkish red at the corner of the street drew Shinichi's attention away from his father's musings—a cheerful blaze of light burgundy against the cool background of blue and white and grey. Ending the call with the remark that he had reconnected with the red thread of destiny, Shinichi prepared to shadow the dark-skinned runner in the pale mauve track suit. The tall, skinny woman, whose short burgundy curls framed a chiselled brown face with marble-round mauve eyes and pale pink lips, had flashed Shinichi a carefree, confident smile when she raced past him and picked up speed, which Shinichi chose to interpret as Fate's new challenge to him. Tailing her, however, was much harder than following all the other redheads (with the exception of the auburn-haired monster and the Oracle of Delphi, who had disappeared as though they had never existed), which was no surprise to Shinichi when he recognized the half-American star athlete.

Fate certainly revealed a wicked sense of humour when it sent him a gifted athlete—and while Shinichi wasn't the slowest runner due to his regular soccer training and his habit of chasing Kaitou Kid through the city, he was hampered by the camellias while Elza Gray, Shirabaka High's former pride, who had always beaten the best runners of Teitan High with ease, wasn't only fast but also had stamina. After a lung-bursting chase through all the main arteries of the cobweb which was Tokyo, Shinichi was left gasping for breath and short of fainting when Elza Gray finally slowed down to a casual walk. In front of him, the reddish-brown bricks of Tokyo Station loomed like a long-awaited finishing line silhouetted against the first orange tints of the gathering sunset. Stopping for a moment to bask in his well-earned sense of achievement, Shinichi was slightly disappointed to discover that it wasn't stronger than the usual surge of adrenalin he got after a normal murder case although the red string of fate had led him to the train station as expected.

.

…

.

Shinichi's phone rang while he was tailing Elza Gray, who was now strolling in the direction of the Imperial Palace; and since Shinichi had time until Ran's train arrived owing to the breakneck speed at which the athlete had led him to the station (and he could turn back whenever he wanted to as long as the red buildings were still in sight), Shinichi continued to follow Elza Gray at some distance while answering his phone.

"So the saleswoman suggested that you buy me a blue Iris—the original _Fleur de Lys_ out of all flowers _—_ as if I were royalty?" asked Haibara in her most haughty voice. "That's extremely flattering! Why didn't you do it?"

"Because you aren't a real princess," Shinichi smirked, breathed a sigh of relief because she had forgiven him, and laughed out loud. "But considering the way you behave, you might as well be one!" She couldn't imagine what happened to him today, he exclaimed. "I've followed all the redheads I met and they've led me to the train station just as I hoped. Also, the Oracle of Delphi—a nine-year-old redhead—has predicted 'auburn hair' and 'a princess' for the camellias I bought. The monster who accompanied the girl had auburn hair, and you must be the princess! I'm going to come across another case today, so it seems, since the Oracle has predicted 'blood' as well."

"I'm glad that this was the last temporary antidote you will ever have taken since you've lost it completely," Haibara murmured in disbelief, and Shinichi smiled at the thought that he had finally managed to confuse her instead of vice versa. "It seems the accumulating side effects are worse than I thought! Hopefully you'll make it through the night since I won't be there if something goes wrong."

 .

…

…To be continued…

…

.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A/N: In case someone (Ritz!) wants to accuse me of splitting chapters again: No, I haven't split the chapter (although I admit that my chapters are growing). This chapter is Seven (2) for a reason. ;)


End file.
